Here is our regular look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points.

• One of the things that got people buzzing today was agent Jeff Schwartz (Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, Paul Pierce and many others) taking the NBA players union to task for its secretive (and slow) process to select a new executive director. Here are some highlights from the TrueHoop piece.

This is a critical hire for the players, who have been impacted so negatively by the most recent collective bargaining agreement. Salaries are down leaguewide, contracts are shorter and include less guaranteed money than they once did, and free-agent movement has been curtailed significantly at a time that NBA franchises are reaching record valuations. Leadership from the union’s next executive director is essential to the ability of current and future generations of NBA players to restore many of the critical benefits that were lost in the last round of negotiations. But here we are again witnessing a search marked by the sort of troubling secrecy that has been synonymous with the NBPA for years….

The only way to repair the damage that has already been done, in my view, is to bring an immediate stop to the current process and then start the executive-director search over from scratch with a much broader approach.

The league later sent out a message to media saying that this was wrong — salaries are not down but up overall, the amount of guaranteed contract money really hasn’t changed and so on. You can spin the numbers a lot of ways. Bottom line is in the old CBA the players got 57 percent of league revenue (basketball related income, or BRI). That fell to basically 50 percent in the new CBA. Some agents are still pissed off over that fight and are itching for the next one.

What Schwartz and many agents really want is a seat at the table, or a players union head who is sympathetic to them and would be virtually a proxy at the table. Some of those agents also wanted to fight longer and harder over percentage points of BRI in the last deal even if it cost a season, which makes sense from their perspective as they see this as money they could try to get their clients later. An agent can lose a year of revenue — they have much longer careers than players (also they tend to manage their money better). Personally, I’m not sold more agent involvement is good for the union or the needs of the players — the players and agents needs do not always line up.

In fact, union executive committee members have talked about trying to limit outside influences in the process of picking a director. There is logic to that.

From my perspective here’s the real issue for the union’s leadership: Those seven percentage points of BRI given up in the last CBA are gone. The players are not getting them back, the owners will not surrender them. So what do you want in the next CBA? What will you fight for? Also, you still get half of the BRI pool, so what can the players do to help grow the size of that pool?

Bottom line fans, prep yourself for the 2017 lockout now, before the rush.

• Former NBA player Fred Jones says NBA players do not want to be coached. I don’t think that’s true, but you can’t expect to lord over them with all the power like a college coach. You need to explain to a pro why, if you can do that they will follow.

• Marco Belinelli won the Three Point Contest All-Star weekend and now is auctioning off the sneakers he wore to raise money for Dynamo Camp, a recreational therapy camp in Italy for children suffering from serious and chronic diseases. To answer your question, they are Nike Hyperdunk iDs withy Belinelli’s initials on the back of the left shoe and his jersey number on the right shoe, with SGP printed on the tongue, representing his hometown of San Giovanni in Persiceto.

Where’s the Cavaliers down by one point with nine seconds to go in the fourth quarter, Rodney Hood took it upon himself to take what he thought would be the last shot for Cleveland. Hood danced around the defense before finally taking a jumper from the free-throw line, which bounced softly off the rim.

Nance, battling down low for the rebound, worked his way free for a tip-in as time expired.

What counts as collusion these days in the NBA? What counts as tampering? It’s hard to say, but the league office takes a look at each and every comment like the one LeBron James made on Tuesday about New Orleans Pelicans big man Anthony Davis.

Speaking to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, James said it would be incredible if Davis were somehow able to make his way onto the Los Angeles Lakers. This slots into the rumor around the NBA that LA is stockpiling its young core to be able to trade for a player like Davis.

“That would be amazing,” James told ESPN on Tuesday before the Lakers’ 115-110 loss to the Brooklyn Nets. “That would be amazing, like, duh. That would be incredible.”

There’s nothing much here that LeBron said that isn’t factual. Davis is a 5-time All-Star and one of the best players in the NBA, a unicorn not unlike LeBron himself.

The NBA is certainly hoping that the Lakers can get their act together and put a powerhouse around James at Staples Center. How he does it is up for debate, although making comments about current players probably isn’t the best idea. James has been able to keep his mouth shut for the most part, but perhaps talk of Davis is just too tempting.

But was Harden called for a travel by officials? No. At least, not at first.

Video of Harden’s ridiculous shuffle was circulated on social media after the Houston Rockets beat the Utah Jazz, 102-97. Harden was asked about the move by media, and said that he wasn’t going to tell on himself, which is fair enough.

On Tuesday the official NBA referee Twitter page decided to comment on the play at hand, admitting that they had made a mistake and had missed a travel.

Via Twitter:

The offensive player gathers the ball while on his right foot. He then takes a step with his left foot (step 1) into a hop step, landing first with his right foot (step 2) and then illegally with his left (step 3). We missed this one – it is a traveling violation. https://t.co/BqMAoZHgIu

Having a Twitter account hasn’t always worked out for the NBRA. Their explanations of what many would consider to be violations have often stood in the face of common sense. To that end, they’ve sometimes been mocked on social media, which is against their goal of having the social channel in the first place. But this play with Harden was a particular sore subject with fans around the league, and it was right of them in to make a comment.

LeBron James is seemingly and ageless wonder. The Los Angeles Lakers forward is still one of the most athletic players to ever grace an NBA court, and despite his obvious physical decline, that’s not to say he’s a slouch out there. He’s not exactly late-career Boris Diaw just yet.

But LeBron is now 34 years old, and as such there are other players on the floor with him at any given time that have a bit more bounce than The King. James found that out the hard way on Tuesday night as the Lakers took on the Brooklyn Nets in New York.

During a play early in the first quarter, James drove to the basket only to be rejected by Brooklyn’s Jarrett Allen at the rim.